Workshop Brothers Specialty Coffee

Fakegf has been visiting a number of Bayside cafes this year, on one of our Wednesday catchup brunches, she brought me to one of her favourites. She tells me the three dudes working here (hairstyles & names written on the takeaway cups) have a genuinely friendly mojo, so it’s quite a nice local spot to have a caffeine hit on her way to work.

Piccolos: Proud Mary Ghost Rider | Maling Room Kenyan Single Origin

The house blend for that day was Ghost Rider, from one of my favourite roasters – Proud Mary. Our coffees were well made, my piccolo came syrupy with hints of stone fruit. Fakegf’s Kenyan single origin (from Maling Room) was confidently strong with an interesting lift of kaffir lime zest.

Having jogged along the beach that morning, both of us were starving by 10.30am. This was one of the rare times where I’d seen Fakegf order a big breaky anywhere. It was a decent offering and all of the bacon landed on my plate… SCORE!!

I decided to try something a little different. The fritters were quite nice to eat… soft, comforting and very filling. But the poached eggs were a little overcooked and I found the salmon gravlax far too salty for my liking. Overall, an interesting and novel brunch dish but I feel it could be tweaked a little bit to give better balance.

This cafe has a nice relaxed atmosphere with friendly guys running the show. It’s easy to just hang out here over coffees and a chat. Fakegf’s other Bayside brunch option was Merchant’s Guild, which has a good menu (not so good coffees), but she tells me it’s a rather noisy bustly place. Maybe we’ll visit there next time if I’m okay with a bit of bustle.

We’ll end with more homecooked goodies that we got up to that week. On the left was Fakegf’s Black Forest Cupcake… it was DAMN GOOD! The sour cherry jam was homemade even! That afternoon, I made vegetarian Thai green curry, the paste was made from scratch and deep frozen a few weeks prior. The curry turned out quite alright… nicely spicy (because I added fresh chillies), and this time I did the correct thing by buying Thai eggplants, bamboo shoots and Thai basil for garnishing. It lasted me for quite a few work lunches.